Dougie Adams embarks on part one of the mammoth task of chronicling every release issued by American CCM pioneer LARRY NORMAN. Larry himself sent in his ain insights on a number of his best known albums.

Larry Norman

Larry Norman

Put but, without Larry Norman in that location would be no gimmicky Christian music. This awesomely talented rocker spearheaded the whole Jesus Music movement, picked up hit records (or more often hit songs, classics like "I Wish We'd All Been Fix" and "Why Should The Devil Have All The Skilful Music" being incessantly covered) In the 70s and '80s Larry was an inspiration for a generation wanting rock not schlock to reflect their Christian worldview. Fifty-fifty Nashville occasionally overcame its cultural myopia to acknowledge Larry'south towering contribution to Christian music. Yet for virtually of the last 20 years Larry has operated without a major record deal in his native America.

Norman's activities have been curtailed by a number of serious health problems which have included partial brain damage and several center attacks. A massive body of recorded material has accumulated and tales of many other unreleased albums and half-finished projects gathering dust somewhere in the vaults add together merely to the mystique and controversy which surrounds Norman'southward work. Different albums have been released in different countries on a beguiling list of record labels and some albums take been re-released several times and in such a style that in that location are even several different versions of the one anthology! Dislocated? Well, you should be! CR editor, Tony Cummings, decided plenty was enough and it was time to cease the confusion (as far as possible!). I've tried to nautical chart, review and depict Larry's official albums for this article. All the other material - promos, singles, albums by other artists to which Larry contributed, compilations and videos - will be dealt with in an extended version of this article to be published exclusively bachelor exclusively on the Cross Rhythms website, once Part 2 of this feature is published in CR63.

NOTE: The albums are listed in the order they were released. The first twelvemonth or years shown indicates the year(s) of recording

1967
People!, I Honey You, Capitol Records ST 2924,1968
Larry's role in the proceedings is express to singing backing vocals on a few songs and being credited with co-writing "k Years BC" and "The Ballsy" which takes up all of side two and clocks in at 13 minutes and 25 seconds. Best summed up in one word: barmy! Every bit it happened Larry left the group on the 24-hour interval that the LP was launched. He has afterwards claimed that the album was originally to have been titled 'We Need A Whole Lot More than Of Jesus And A Lot Less Rock And Scroll' and should take contained more of his own songs until Capitol changed the album title and runway list to brand the release more commercial. The anthology was released on CD by Capitol in 1994 only is now deleted.

1967-69
People!, Both Sides Of People, Capitol Records ST-151,1969
Larry ended upwardly with more writing credits and lead vocals on this album even though he had left the group the previous yr! "I've Got You On My Mind" and "Hasty Heart" were both written by Larry and feature his lead vocals, while the remaining members recorded a long, protracted psychedelic version of "She's A Dancer" after Larry had moved on to pastures new. This album was a compilation of B-sides, outtakes from the showtime album and songs recorded later Larry had left. Never issued on CD, LP deleted!

1969
Larry Norman, Upon This Rock, Capitol Records ST-446,1970
Larry's debut solo anthology contained the beginning seeds of greatness which hinted at what he would be capable of producing in the years to come up. Sometimes this is erroneously referred to as the first Christian stone album. What is not disputed is the fact that 'Upon This Rock' was 1 of the first contemporary Christian albums to gain respect in mainstream music circles. Believe information technology or not, John Peel was once a fan of this album.

Larry'south comments: 'Upon This Rock' was supposed to be a blues album only I got flu for three days and while I was in bed the basic tracking sessions got pushed away from stone and scroll. Which was probably for the all-time. You can hear my version of "Sweet Song Of Salvation" on 'Shouting In The Storm'. It's more like Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding and that would have never gone very far with the people who ended up liking the song and putting it in hymnals. The management of the album got side-tracked past a person in publishing who had formerly been a construction worker. He convinced Liz Montei that he could produce, and so he and I concluded up tussling for the reins. Merely I'm sure now it was office of God's plan. I would accept cranked out a tortuous, lovely rock and curl album, closer to Beggar'southward-Banquet-meets-Layla and it would have burned to a crisp. But as it was, the anthology went all over the globe, fifty-fifty bootlegged in many countries where the church has no concept of copyright laws. It started a brawl rolling that I never could take nudged very far at all. Hal Blaine played drums on information technology, as well equally for many other bands like the Embankment Boys and Simon and Garfunkel. Joe Osborne, Larry Knetchtel, Butch Parker, Mike Deasy; all tiptop session men at that time, were on it.

Clydie King and Vanetta Fields, who worked with The Stones and Ray Charles, sang on some of the songs and then iii singers who did that kind of operatic thing on "I Don't Believe In Miracles," 'The Postlude" and a few other places. When Capitol finally gave me the tapes, I did overdubs and other changes on the songs, a completely different "Last Supper," remixed the entire anthology and this became the version nigh people have heard.

In later years many critics bemoaned Larry'south tendency to release different versions of the same album and to keep recording new versions of old songs. This tendency has been at that place from the very start of Larry's output as a recording artist. The original version on Capitol Records was recorded in 1969 but non released until 1970. In this rarer of the two versions (it wasn't sold in Christian bookshops) the album began with an instrumental medley which cross faded into "You lot Can't Accept Away The Lord". This opening track went under two different titles (another emerging trait); existence named "Overture" on the label and "Prelude" on the jacket. Elsewhere the mixes of "Ha Ha World" and "Nada Actually Changes" were significantly different to those featured on the more familiar version released to the Christian bookstores. The version of "The Last Supper" is a completely different take altogether, as this ane has Larry singing in an almost operatic vocalisation accompanied by an orchestra. Hal Yoergler was credited as the producer. Several of the songs are still ranked amidst most people's favourite Norman tunes with the likes of "Moses In The Wilderness", "Sweet Sweetness Song Of Salvation", the ofttimes-overlooked gem "Forget Your Hexagram" all present, plus the original studio version of the classic "I Wish Nosotros'd All Been Ready". Speaking of his third contract with Capitol Records, Larry recalled, "This time they're all eager. They want to be the first label to release this Jesus Rock stuff. They were calling my album the Sergeant Pepper of Christianity and preparing grand promotional manoeuvres. Only when 'Upon This Rock' was finally released, all the distributors and disc jockeys were all uptight. They'd never heard of Jesus stone and they wondered who would buy information technology. Even the Christian distributors and tape stores and disc jockeys were uptight. They'd never heard of Jesus rock. And they felt it couldn't possibly be Christian considering it was rock. And so basically I was met by this wall of resistance: I was likewise religious for the rock and scroll people and also rock and roll for the religious people." This version has never been released by Capitol on CD.

1969-1970
Larry Norman, Upon This Rock (remix), Bear on (HWS-3121), 1970
This is the more familiar version released to the Christian bookstores with 10 songs. To brainstorm with the prelude or overture has been axed and a number of the tracks have had new mixes and new lead vocals and / or additional harmonies added. This process sees "Walking Backwards Down The Stairs", "Sweetness Sugariness Song Of Salvation" and "Ha Ha World" being edited in length, while varispeed is applied to "I Wish Midweek All Been Set up" to speed it up slightly. "Forget Your Hexagram" and "Nothing Really Changes" go new lead vocals and "The Concluding Supper" becomes a solo, piano and song arrangement notable for the two moments where Larry goes crazy on the clinking piano solos and the strange disturbing imagery in the lyrics! Kingsway released this on CD in 1990 but this has long been deleted. Solid Rock also sold a slightly dissimilar radio promo simply version on CD which had most of the mixes from the later version along with the reinstated "Prelude" and 1969 mixes of "Ha Ha World" and "The Last Supper". This 2d CD version is now also deleted.

1969-70
Larry Norman, Street Level, One Manner Records (JC-7397), 1970
Larry'south comments: 'Street Level' and 'Bootleg' were made under the poorest of circumstances. I was working on a serial of seven albums, but I was also writing musicals and using some of my album songs for bandage music. I had planned to exercise 'Street Level1 and 'Homemade' with Capitol Records merely they dropped me because they couldn't locate a market for my kind of music, which is why they leased 'Upon This Rock' to Benson for the Impact label. So I had no money for the studio and ended up using bits of pieces of cast demos, live performances and subsequently-hour studio favours to cobble together a vague semblance of what my original concepts were. I met Fred Bova in a health nutrient restaurant He was barefoot playing his guitar at the lunch table where he was sitting and eating. So that's how I establish a lead guitarist The whole two years of sessions was like that Trying to create a message despite the situation and making cassettes and then I could requite them to people I was witnessing to because most street people and hippies thought 'Upon This Rock' was "plastic", which was anathema to the hipsters who were begging for spare modify and scrounging for drugs. 'Street Level' opened a lot of doors into those people's heads so I could continue talking to them about Jesus.

Side one has some songs from a 1969 concert in Hollywood and opens with the excellent poem "Starting time Day In Church" which proved to be a adept early example of Larry using sense of humor to help make his audition take note of an unpalatable strong social comment Norman then plays two songs which wait forward to the persecution of Christians in America ("Peace Pollution Revolution" and "Correct Here In America") earlier delivering a beautiful and haunting performance of "I Wish We'd All Been Ready". Side two features studio demos of some of the songs from the musical Lion's Jiff: "I Am The Six 0 Clock News", "She'due south A Dancer", "I Don't Wanna Lose You", The Price Of Living" and "Sigrid Jane".

1968-71
Larry Norman, Bootleg, 1 Fashion Records (JC-4847), 1971
Double LP with 27 tracks including some Tv set interview segments and on stage monologues plus studio demos and live performances. Later Larry would speak of his regrets nearly 'Bootleg' being put together likewise quickly and then that it was released before his newly signed contract with MGM Records took event. The majority of cuts feature Larry accompanying himself on guitar or piano with i or two wilder ring performances thrown in to the mix.

1969-71
Larry Norman & White Calorie-free, Street Level (2d version). Ane Way Records (JC-3973), 1971
Side 1 survives unchanged from the outset version, but side two is completely unlike after existence changed and so that Christians could understand it more easily! Larry is joined by Randy Stonehill and White Light for some raucous studio versions of "Baby Out Of Wedlock" (later renamed twice as "You Knew What Yous Were Doing" and "When You Sent Your Son"), "Blue Shoes White", "I've Searched All Around" (subsequently to grace 'In Some other Land') and "Jim Ware'south Blues" (also better known as "Why Don't You Await Into Jesus"!). Ii cuts from 'Bootleg' reappear here, the long simple piano vocal version of "Ane Style" and the same "I've Searched All Around". Larry accompanies himself on pianoforte for the Jesus Music favourite "No More LSD For Me" the only track from both versions which has and then far not been re-issued on either the 'Rough Street Dear Letter' or 'Cottage Tapes' CDs.